Age Limit Helps U.s. Soccer Team

BARCELONA, SPAIN — The question asked of several U.S. Olympic soccer players concerned the biggest stadium they ever had played in, but it wasn`t really to the point.

The question should have been, what was the biggest virtually empty stadium they ever had played in?

It will be answered Friday night, when Team USA opens the 1992 Olympic sports competition against Italy in 120,000-seat Nou Camp Stadium. At least 110,000 seats are expected to be unsold.

The U.S. players were supposed to get a preview of playing in such a vacuum with a warmup session at Nou Camp Thursday. That was canceled when a necessary security escort failed to arrive, infuriating U.S. coach Lothar Osiander.

Because the Olympic soccer tournament is limited to players age 23 and under, it has not energized Barcelona soccer fans, who regularly fill Nou Camp to cheer for the city`s professional soccer club. Soccer is by far Spain`s most popular sport.

The international soccer federation (FIFA) restricts Olympic eligibility to protect the primacy of the World Cup, its own quadrennial tournament, which is open to all players. The International Olympic Committee has tried vainly to have FIFA adopt the same rules for the Olympics.

``If that happened, we would have to give up either the World Cup or the Olympics, because the big professional clubs would not allow us to use their players both times,`` said FIFA president Joao Havelange of Brazil.

Havelange said the lack of major stars should not spoil the tournament.

``Look at the 100 meters,`` he said. ``Carl Lewis won`t be running, but that doesn`t mean the public isn`t interested in the race.``

While one could question Havelange`s logic, there is no doubt the age limit gives a tremendous boost to U.S. chances in the tournament. In the 1988 Olympics, when the U.S. was eliminated after one round with an 0-2-1 record, the tournament excluded only those players from Europe and South America who had been in a World Cup.

``We can compete at this age level much more successfully than at unlimited levels,`` Osiander said. ``We have a chance of being in the Final Four, although it is remote.``

Much has been made of the absence of teams from such traditional soccer powers as Germany, Argentina and Brazil, all of whom failed to qualify, but none of those countries has won the Olympics.

The 16-team tournament is divided into four round-robin groups for the first round. The top two in each group advance to the quarterfinals, after which the play becomes single elimination.

``Hopefully we can win one game and tie another and advance,`` Osiander said.

The U.S. has a 2-10-4 record in nine previous Olympic appearances. Osiander announced Thursday that leading scorer Steve Snow would not start because the team wants to use a more defense-oriented lineup. It never has won more than a single match in any tournament. And U.S. starters Alexi Lalas and Chris Henderson are likely to be sidelined by injuries for the opener.

The U.S. group, including tournament favorite Italy, Poland and Kuwait, is likely the toughest.

Most of Italy`s top players will be starters next season on first-division teams in the Italian League, which is the world`s best. The status of nearly all the Italian players increased as Italy qualified for the Olympics by winning the European Under-21 Championship.

And Italy won`t even be using the country`s best 23-and-under player, forward Gianluigi Lentini, who is too valuable to play in the Olympics.

Lentini recently was involved in the costliest player transaction in sports history. Italian League champion AC Milan bought him from Turin for $52 million, including a $20 million transfer fee and a $32 million, four-year deal for the player.

The Olympic team`s top player is Alessandro Melli, who scored five goals for first-division Parma last season. Goalie Francesco Antonioli finished the season as the starter for AC Milan, which went unbeaten in 34 league matches. Italian coach Cesare Maldini was on the verge of being fired when the team lost 6-0 to Norway in the first round of the European under-21 tourney. The team went on to win Italy`s first international soccer title in a decade. ``We will remind them that Columbus discovered America, and hopefully they will let us discover Olympic soccer on a friendly basis and won`t crucify us,`` Osiander said.